Pilgrim in the Woods

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Artist: Carl Blechen (German, 1798–1840)
Medium: Lithograph in black and blue on cream wove paper
Size: Image: 22.6 × 30.8 cm (8 15/16 × 12 3/16 in.); Sheet: 34.3 × 46 cm (13 9/16 × 18 1/8 in.)
Museum: Art Institute of Chicago
Rights: CC0 — no rights reserved

Throughout his career, Carl Blechen often returned to the theme of a pilgrim at a shrine in the woods. In this depiction, the religious shrine, trees, and dark landscape loom over the praying pilgrim, producing a melancholic mood. The emotional tenor of the scene is further enhanced by the lithograph’s pale green tint.

Blechen used two stones to create this print, one with green ink for the background and the other bearing a drawing of the primary image. Though the landscape is gloomy, the shrine and its surroundings glow with the highlights produced as the artist scraped away passages on the tint stone. Blechen, who was influenced by Caspar David Friedrich, utilized this contrast of light and dark to express the abiding connection between nature and religion.

Text: Art Institute of Chicago, CC BY 4.0.